I'm in a quandry here: my five and a half year old DD has been sick for over a week now with fever, cough, aches, etc. We've been to the doc (holistic one) twice, and he determined that she has pneumonia! She's never been sick more than a day before, so I'm a bit floored. Here's my dilemma: he gave me a prescription for zithromax (erithromycin), but said it may not be bacterial and she "probably won't need it". But today we're here with our NINTH DAY OF FEVER! and I'm trying to balance my "let the body do it's thing" philosophy with my anxiety about her. Every day has been the same: she wakes up with an awful coughing fit, pukes several times (mucus, mostly), then spikes a fever averaging 102, and then it goes down throughout the afternoon. By mid-afternoon she seems almost fine and I think it's finally going to be over; then she coughs again before sleeping, and the whole cycle begins again. For 9 days!! I know that at least half of pneumonias are viral, so I don't want to give an unnecessary antibiotic, but I'm afraid if I don't use it, she'll be sick for an eternity! She has also had an allergic reaction to topical neosporin (which we assume was a neomycin allergy-- she never had vaccines, thank god), so I'm nervous about the possibility of an allergic reaction to the zithromax. She's never had an antibiotic before!!

What do you think? Anyone experienced pneumonia before? Does this sound familiar, did you give antibiotics? Would love BTDT advice from you ladies...
(BTW, we are using non-traditional remedies gallore...)

Thanks in advance!!

Wendy

Momma of three, born 9/2000, 1/2003 and 12/2012! Married to my beautiful wife, whatever the law says. Nurse practitioner student, RN, childbirth educator and birth doula

I have not had to deal with pneumonia yet. I had given antibios 2 times with my ds. Once when he had strep/eye infection,and his fever was nearing 106. Behavior was off and no improvement with home therapy.Second time again was ds with periorital cellulitis that did not improve with home treatment.

I would try alternative methods to assist the body in healing before giving antibios.Things I most often have used are sodium ascorbate,echinacea/zinc,and various herbal teas.Try some of the things listed here:http://www.healthy.net/scr/Author.asp?PeoId=623

If you don't see improvement in a certain amount of time(everyone has a different time frame) then consider reevaluation,and perhaps requesting an antibio you feel might be safer. Healings for your dd! I am sure at this point she is very tired.She needs a bit of boosting. If you go with antibios don't forget a bit of kefir or other pro-biotics for the gut.

Honestly it sounds like bacterial pneumonia rather then viral and my dd does the same thing, seems decent during the day but nights are hell. I'd do the abx, you'll see a big improvement within 72 hours if its bacterial but make sure to finish them or you'll end up needing another round of an even stronger abx. We just did 2 rounds of Zithromax one being double strength because the Dr's didn't believe me it wouldn't work. Were now a month into this dam thing and they finally ordered the 21 days of Biaxin I told them she would need to begin with!: (we've been though this before)

I have looked into sodium ascorbate, and we've been doing Emergen-C quite a bit, which has that in it, right?

Today she's seeming better-- this is the first morning in over a week (we're at day 14 since the cough first started, and day 10 since the fever began) she's woken up without a fever (so far!). Usually by this time of day she's already at 101 or so, and it peaks at 102 or 103. Right now, she's at 97.9!!! I can only hope this signals an improvement. She is still coughing, but seems more comfortable today. I think I'll continue to look for daily improvement, and as long as she's a bit better each day, I'll hold off on the antibiotics. I've read that viral pneumonia can last a couple of weeks anyway, so I don't want to assume that she needs the meds just because it's taking a while.

Honestly, the thing that seems most helpful is simple ole' chamomile tea with lemon and honey. She loves it, and it seems to help keep her calm, calm her cough, and the lemon aids in keeping her fever from getting too high.

Thanks so much, all of you! Hope your own children are healthy today!!

Wendy

Momma of three, born 9/2000, 1/2003 and 12/2012! Married to my beautiful wife, whatever the law says. Nurse practitioner student, RN, childbirth educator and birth doula